Chapter 2 - The Wicked Stepmother
To understand the absolute, agonizing tension in the driveway, you had to understand exactly what happened inside that mansion over the last three months.
I wasn't just a maid. I was the boys' entire world. Since their mother died in a horrific car accident three years ago, Mr. Sterling had completely buried himself in his corporate empire to escape his grief. He worked eighty-hour weeks. I was the one who bandaged their scraped knees, read them bedtime stories, and chased the monsters out from under their beds.
We were safe. We were happy.
Then, Victoria arrived.
Victoria was thirty-two, stunningly beautiful, with long dark hair and an endless wardrobe of beige designer dresses. She was the daughter of a powerful investor, and Mr. Sterling had quickly become engaged to her. He thought she was elegant. He thought she would be a perfect mother.
He was entirely, catastrophically wrong.
The second Mr. Sterling left for the office, Victoria’s sweet, angelic smile vanished. She hated the boys. She called them "noisy burdens." She locked their toys in the basement. She forced them to sit in absolute silence in the formal dining room for hours. If they cried, she pinched the soft skin on the backs of their arms where the bruises wouldn't show.
I tried to stop her. I stood between her and the children every single day. I threatened to tell Mr. Sterling.
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"Go ahead and tell him, you pathetic little maid," Victoria had sneered at me just yesterday, sipping her expensive wine. "I am going to be his wife. You are the hired help. Let's see who he believes."
👉 I thought she was just going to have me quietly fired, but I had absolutely no idea she was actively framing me for a felony.
